VT Technology

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Microsoft released Windows Server 2016 TP4, making lots of exciting new features available to the public. How to access all the different versions of free Hyper-V Server and Windows Server Core if you need to maintain older versions on site? Managing everything from a command line is very time-consuming.

The easiest way to manage multiple versions of Hyper-V is to use vtUtilities.

vtUtilities support multiple versions of Windows Server which means you can run WinServ 2016 TP3, WinServ 2008/2008R2, WinServ 2012/2012R2 side by side.

One of the greatest advantages of vtUtilities is that you can manage Windows Server 2008R2/2012R2 as well as Windows Server 2016 (now available as Technical Preview) from Windows 10 as well as from Windows 7 and Windows 8. Please note, what Windows Server 2016 is still under development and thus technical support is not available for this version of Windows.

Virtual Machines result view in vtUtilities Cluster Manager displays a list of all VMs configured for high availability with a possibility to start/stop a corresponding cluster node, move VM or its storage to a different cluster node, configure (add) another VM from any cluster node as highly available or remove cluster role for highly available VM.

Hyper-V Replica Broker

Installation of vtUtilities

The product requires a 64-bit versions of Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 or Windows 10 and any version of Windows Server you're intending to use: Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2 and the latest Windows Server 2016 TP3.
vtUtilities also can be used on 64-bit versions of Windows what don't support Hyper-V role.
Other prerequisites include x64-based processors and .NET 3.51 or later.
See our getting started guide for instructions.

What's New in Nano Server. Nano Server now supports the DNS Server and IIS server roles, as well as MPIO, VMM, SCOM, DSC push mode, DCB, Windows Server Installer, and the WMI provider for Windows Update. Its Recovery Console supports editing and repairing the network configuration. A Windows PowerShell module is now available to simplify building Nano Server images.

Windows Containers: Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview now includes containers, which allow many isolated applications to run on one computer system. They build fast and are highly scalable and portable. Two different types of container runtime are included with the feature, each with a different degree of application isolation. Windows Server Containers achieve isolation through namespace and process isolation. Hyper-V Containers encapsulates each container in a light weight virtual machine. For some additional information on containers, see Containers: Docker, Windows and Trends.

What's New in Failover Clustering in Windows Server Technical Preview. This topic explains the new and changed functionality of Failover Clustering. A Hyper-V or Scale-out File Server failover cluster can now easily be upgraded without any downtime or need to build a new cluster with nodes that are running Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview.

Windows Defender Overview for Windows Server Technical Preview. Windows Server Antimalware is installed and enabled by default in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview, but the user interface for Windows Server Antimalware is not installed. However, Windows Server Antimalware will update antimalware definitions and protect the computer without the user interface. If you need the user interface for Windows Server Antimalware, you can install it after the operating system installation by using the Add Roles and Features Wizard.

What's New in Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2016. For the Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview, the Remote Desktop Services team focused on improvements based on customer requests. We added support for OpenGL and OpenCL applications, and added MultiPoint Services as a new role in Windows Server.

What's New in File and Storage Services in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview. This topic explains the new and changed functionality of Storage Services. An update in storage quality of service now enables you to create storage QoS policies on a Scale-Out File Server and assign them to one or more virtual disks on Hyper-V virtual machines. Storage Replica is a new feature that enables synchronous replication between servers for disaster recovery, as well as stretching of a failover cluster for high availability..

What's New in Web Application Proxy in Windows Server Technical Preview. The latest version of Web Application Proxy focuses on new features that enable publishing and preauthentication for more applications and improved user experience. Check out the full list of new features that includes preauthentication for rich client apps such as Exchange ActiveSync and wildcard domains for easier publishing of SharePoint apps.

The new console functionality is enabled by default. If an existing application doesn't work properly with the new console, you can select Use legacy console on the Options tab and then restart your application. You can also control individual aspects of the new functionality with registry keys; see details at the linked topics.

Console windows can be resized dynamically with the mouse. This could cause issues with some console applications.

Quick Edit mode is enabled by default. If this conflicts with your application, you can disable it on the Options tab.

There are new keyboard shortcuts for copy, paste, and history navigation. If these conflict with your application, you can disable them on the Options tab (look for Enable CTRL key shortcuts and Extended test selection keys).

The default font type for new console windows is TrueType. You can still use raster fonts, but they won't scale properly on some displays.

Text wraps and reflows by default when you resize a window. If necessary, you can disable this on the Layouts tab.

In some cases, after upgrade installation, fonts in the console window might be very small. To adjust this, use the Fonts tab.

What’s New in Windows PowerShell 5.0. Windows PowerShell 5.0 includes significant new features—including support for developing with classes, and new security features—that extend its use, improve its usability, and allow you to control and manage Windows-based environments more easily and comprehensively. Multiple new features in Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) are also described in this topic.

What's New in Networking in Windows Server Technical Preview. The majority of what you’ll find for networking is new in TP3. We bring a scalable network controller for programming policies, an L4 load balancer for high availability and performance, enhanced gateways for hybrid connectivity, and an underlying network fabric that converges RDMA traffic together with tenant traffic, DNS policies that control how your DNS servers respond to incoming requests, and better integration of DNS and IPAM.